The Poultry Keeper

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 3195 Location: Monmouthshire

Wretched creature has been up the holly tree again. I found the decapitated corpse of the remaining banty marans cockerel, but a headcount revealed that 3 anconas and 2 brown leghorns are missing too. Last night I managed to catch those birds still contemplating a night in the holly (2 x appenzellers, 2 x TNNs and an exchequer leghorn) and shut them in various houses.
The birds in the deciduous trees seem to be safe, so I'll just have to retrain the Holly birds.

tuzo2k · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 179 Location: charente sw france

sorry to hear that Henwife. We have lots of the damn things over here and as we are pretty much surrounded by trees they have plenty of camoflage. So far we have only had one attack and he wont be back. He/she found their way into an enclosed pen of chickens but couldn't find the way out!! The most annoying thing with them is, as with the fox, they don't just kill one, they have to kill and terrorise the others. That's the joys of keeping animals - it is inevitable that you sometimes have 'dead' animals. Regards Richard.

Sparklepeeps · Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1942 Location: Cheshire

Could you rig up a little electric fence type situation around the holly tree truck or are pole cats cleverer than that?

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 3195 Location: Monmouthshire

If the holly had a single trunk, that would work, but there are 4 main stems from the base, plus a cider apple tree intertwined which looks fabulous in bloom amongst the dark holly leaves.

Richie · Joined: 27 Nov 2007 Posts: 10

You are very lucky to have these guys around!

Beautiful creatures, I have ferrets, polecat coloured ferrets and a polecat hybrid.

In the UK it is illegal to kill them due to their rarity.
Don't get me wrong I understand how you feel but if you keep prey items such as poultry you should expect they will be on the menu. I keep chickens but have them locked up at night due to foxes.

Good luck protecting your fowl from these guys, they are the best climbers and no way as agile as Martins.

Rich

Sparklepeeps · Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1942 Location: Cheshire

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:gEL6RAKn1xiuuM:http://www.naturewatch.org/foundation/lithuania/images/polecat.jpg

You wouldnt think they were so vicious would you?

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 3195 Location: Monmouthshire

Silly though it might sound, I am delighted to have this rarity, though I prefer it to pick the pigeons out of the trees. There are only two bantams up the holly tonight - and I'll catch them eventually. I think it's easier to outwit the bantams than the polecat.

Chris Kurzfeld · Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 1375 Location: Carmarthenshire

I probably shouldn't say this without crossing everything and touching wood but we have foxes, badgers, polecats, a pine marten AND mink and, as yet, none have caused a problem. I've been toying with putting an electric fence round the main run (100'x60') but would an electric fence keep them all out? My girls, and boy, free range in the paddock for most of the day but are locked up in the coops at night. The coops are in the main run which the chickens stay in if I am not around to keep an eye - we also have 7 dogs.

Chris

Richie · Joined: 27 Nov 2007 Posts: 10

I think with the 7 dogs you won't have any probs.

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 3195 Location: Monmouthshire

I have electric fences around all my runs and as an anti fox measure, it has worked. The small predators can slip under the first wire.

Bradders · Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:52 am Post subject:

Hate the little b***ers Twisted Evil

sasha.p · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 479 Location: gwent

sorry to hear they got at your birds i would consider fencing around the holly with chicken wire to prevent the girls from getting in there in the first place that way you will not have to chop anything down or have the hassle of getting the girls out .once a predator knows where they like to roost thats it and it just becomes a game to them,i must be mad as we took on some new birds the other week and also took on two ferrets from the same bloke but i have the ferrets kept safley locked up away from our lot the problem i have with our fences is that even though it is chicken wired and electric fenced we get rats that just burrow that little bit deeper to get in and then use our run to their advantage so the owls and foxes cant get at them by hiding and ducking under all our houses,i was hoping the ferrets may of aided us with the rats but they have not shown any interest at all not sure if that is normall but was told they may be of help but they are the cutest little things its hard to beleive they could cause so much damage to our birds Smile

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 3195 Location: Monmouthshire

Since my birds can and do fly, fencing off the holly is unfortunately a non starter (I've caught all except two of the miscreants now). If I clip their wings & they can't fly, they can't escape daytime ground predators - and a fox is always a risk even with electric netting. Most of my houses are now raised far enough above ground to stop the rats nesting beneath them, though I still have rats.

Tarka · Joined: 21 Dec 2007 Posts: 318

Can someone please post a picture of a " POLL CAT as i've never seen oone Confused

CP · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 12:40 pm Post subject:

Have a look here Tarka. Wink

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/274.shtml